Perfect assassin

Any Skyrim players here? This one is for you.

Have you ever used console commands by point-and-clicking an interesting object so you can learn its ID and move/change/delete it? Of course, you did. It does not always work, sometimes improper coding just makes things worse, but if you have never screwed your game to Oblivion, you have a reason to consider yourself lucky. And now you are VERY lucky if for the whole time gaming and cheating you have never come across a familiar to eye object with suddenly no identification.

These stories I found on different Skyrim-themed forums, like modding communities, gamer communities... all cheating communities.

This is not about moral, really. It is about finding things you were not supposed to see, something hidden away for your own sake. But I would rather, continue with the words of the witnesses.

It was Rasty's story I found first. Quote:


“OK guys, some strange shit just happened. I was just crawling Silverdrift Lair and there are these doors with hidden levers or something to open them, whatever. I searched damned cave, but with mod on hardcore dungeons lighting I just wasted like ten minutes. OK, I thought, let's play bad. Selected that door. It was dark as hell so I barely saw it, and strange, numbers of ID didn't appear. But quotes were there alright, so I just typed “unlock” and... nothing. And then a report came: “can not apply to a character”. What the crap that came from? I was alone there! I clicked around some more, really irritated at this point, but change was only in last report, there was added the line: “You crossed me”.

The door was f***ing threatening me?

Closed console, just stood there for few moments. Then something glittered in the dark, and next thing I know - my nord screams in pain and falls on the floor. Yeah, my 70lvl tank in heavy armor just got oneshoted. I was in 3-person view, so why's the hell I didn't see it coming!

And then instead of quickloading I see main menu. Try to load, only to just see my character lying on the floor in his blood. Loading quicksave, which was almost near the entrance... same shit. I just opened load menu, and all saves are marked as 'deceased' instead of hero's name.

What the hell happened with my game?? What mods can be responsible?”


Rasty was accused of trashing his game with mods, but he soon left the forum and the topic died. Last message he sent:

“Came to first-person while lying dead. Shit. Is THAT what got me?”

He never explained what had happened, so the topic died.

Next I came across anonymous request on Nexus mods, saying that there are unfinished quests in game code, something developers dropped, though they had a potential. “For example, there are files for a quest “Perfect assassin”, which was supposed to let you hunt down some tricky and strong murderer. Would be nice if someone made a full story mod from it.” There were few replies, some saying that there were indeed something like that in game structure, but most of material was absent or cut out, including the main culprit. So there was nothing to restore there.

And that topic died.


Next story I heard myself, playing with voice-chat in a totally different game. We were goofing around between raids and someone named Alduis decided to open Skyrim meanwhile. He went silent all of sudden, then said “That's weird”, than silent again. When all attention was his, he reluctantly explained the situation. Alduiss's character was jailed, and you know how you have to escape and unlock an expert-level chest with your possessions with only one lockpick. He's not a sneaky type. Burned down the guards, found no keys on them, but still had to take his stuff. So, console and “unlock”.

“That's weird, - he said. - Why it says it can't apply on a character.”

“You missed. Try selecting again,” - someone said.

“What could I misselect? There is no one around.”

He was silent for some time, and we returned to chat.

“Guys, - said Alduis. - That's weird.”

He casted “life detection”.

“It detected something.”

It was decided to be a bug, and then we were laughing at Alduis, who suddenly was creeped out and ran to Solitude streets having nothing but rags on him. Without making a dozen steps he met a courier, who delivered “to you hands only” and “he didn't name himself” kind of letter. It said:

“You crossed me”.

Alduis was staying there, in evening light, thinking what quest could have caused it, when running and shouting started. Like what happens when vampires or thieves show up. Only this time no culprit was seen. Someone was murdered, someone of the guards. Then another one. Both in the shadows. Alduis tried to figure out what the heck was happening, then he just shouted something like “crap it!” and ran. Because the third victim was right next to him, and he did not want to be the forth, he said. He hid in “Winking Skeever”, stood in the light and noise of the tavern, and nothing happened. And then he decided to cast a life detection. All tavern became glowing with blue lights, but one of them was certainly moving in shady corners, like someone was crawling to Alduis. Next thing he did - hired Belrand, the merc from that tavern, and tried to stay as far from this glow as possible.

Then he kept silence for a long time. We finally decided to go for another raid, so Alduis was needed back. We called him, he answered very reluctantly.

“There's someone in shadows, something with no ID. I can only detect it with magic, but it is trying to get me.”

“What? Invisible character?”

“No, I think he is just hiding too well. I can't select him anymore, can't catch him. But I just saw a flash of magic in shadows, like a cloak of Nocturnal... So he is using skills... Ouch! He killed Belrand. Crap, it's almost dark already. When night comes, I am done for sure.”
“Just save and deal with it later. It is certainly some kind of bug. We have a raid to do.”
“Yeah, just a... OH CRAP WHAT WAS THAT?!”

He went offline and we had to wait for almost twenty minutes for him to come back. He spoke in a weak voice like he took a beating. “Sorry, just shut down notebook after what I saw. She got me.”

We tried to ask what the hell he was talking about, but he spoke gibberish. And was very scared.

“Her eyes are just... Oh crap, her eyes...”

“Who's eyes?”

“Assassin's eyes.”

That was everything we could drag from him, he refused to play - not in Skyrim, not in any game. We had to find another healer on a raid, and Alduis was just sitting there, saying he had to hear our voices so not to stay alone in his apartment. Sitting, in silence, and panicking.
I can't tell what happened to him, because I never managed to catch him online after that. So, I had nothing better to do than to search a net for a “perfect assassin” unfinished quest - and what do you think? I found a mentioning of it on Bethesda forum. It said that someone said that someone from the development team said that they were creating this quest just to play with character AI. To see how deadly enemy they could make, not using common health/damage numbers, but trying to make it smart, flexible, adapting to the world itself?

A perfect prey for Dovakhin, someone so elusive and almost impossible to put down. And so rewarding. Then, rumors say, something went wrong and they had to delete this character. And no further explanations.

I organized all information I had by this point and created a topic on TES Wikia. It attracted some attention, and even not everybody was calling me a liar and/or dreamer. There are nice people over there, who tried to find different explanations to what happened, but how can you discuss an experience that you can not repeat? Someone was so agitated they started searching Skyrim areas with open console, randomly clicking on different objects just to find nothing wrong with their IDs. Only one person claimed that he found “an invisible assassin” but he was so creeped out for some reason he just shut the game and found next day that all his saves were spoiled. Like someone killed his character when he was not even ingame.

People fussed over his story a little, but there was no confirmations, no strict facts, so in a time this topic died.


Alduis died, too. It happened in a month or so after we played last time. Never thought a person like him would commit a suicide.


I dropped the issue after that, some part of me was afraid of researching forward. And then I received an e-mail, with headline...

Yeah. “Perfect assassin”.

I must say, I hesitated before opening it. The address was unknown to me, but at least it was not anonymous or something. And this is what it said:


“Hey, you were the one asking about assassin? I've got it. Scripted a mod revealing sneaking characters, just to see if what's Alduis were saying was true. Spent two weeks clicking everywhere with an open console, but I've caught her finally. Not sure if it was worth it. Not for me.

Well, I've seen her face, dude. It is a female, nord I think. Not a kind I would marry. Black spots on her face, like Vilkas has. And eyes, so piercing yellow, so burning with hatred... I just can't describe it close enough. She was in dark brotherhood's armor, but black, only a cowl had a red facial mask, like they do. My character was a head of DB by that time, she hunted me anyway.

I made copies of saves, so when she killed me, I could return alive. It seemed she was after my character, and no matter how old save I loaded, she hunted me, gleaming with these eyes of her. And she had me every time. I managed to catch her in console again, but no commands would work. No commands would work at all after you wake her and it seems she's moving when you pause the game.

Well, the main thing I wanted to tell is - you DON'T want to see her. There's no beauty to behold, believe me. And after that you... no, OK, that would sound too weird. But if you ever get a save where your character is just lying dead in his own blood... don't try to switch to the first-person view. Don't ask me why. I did it and I regret it. Just don't, or you won't be able to play Skyrim ever again, or any game. I freaked out when I tried to watch a TV because I had caught myself on staring into shadows, sweating.

I am not paranoid enough to be afraid of the dark yet, but I moved back to my parents just not to stay alone when night comes. I don't know what devil they coded into Skyrim, but if you see her from first-person, you see the death herself.

And then you can't stop seeing it.

P.S.: And you know what I think? Developers never meant to releaseSkyrimm with HER there. They just couldn't code her out.”


I experienced all spectrum of emotions when reading this. Excitement, terror, good share of skepticism as well. However, I decided to heed it. I was not stupid enough to step into this myself. I scarcely wanted to play Skyrim at all after all this. But I appeared to be bad enough to let down another person.

When I was showing this letter to my gamer friend, I was telling myself that I just had to share emotions, nothing more. But part of me knew what was going to happen. We discussed the story and even laughed about it, and when we partied, I saw excitement in Jerry's eyes. And I pretended that I did not.

And that same evening I got a 'WhatsApp' message.

“I saw her.”

That made me regret immediately and send me a great shiver.

“Shit, I saw her from the first-view.”

“There is a guy from your wikia-topic, he shared a spoiled save.”

I felt guilty, I did. But still, I had to know. Everything.

“That script mentioned in the letter, it wasn't needed. The thing is, she was never invisible. Once you get to see her and know how she looks, you start to see her everywhere. I reinstalled Skyrim and started a new game, so she is not trying to kill me anymore. But she is there, from the start. Hiding... I dunno, like some predator, almost unseen. But once you know what to look for, you can't NOT see her. She's chasing you. She's looking at you with THESE eyes. Waiting for you to cross her, to try coding her. It's some kind of activation. Or maybe because that's what they did. Tried to code her away.”

That was enough. I called Jerry and asked to stop this. To come to my place, so we can drink beer together, watch some stupid TV-show and completely forget about Skyrim.

But he refused. His voice was sunk, but he seemed interested in going further.

“Going where?”

“I want to see what happens when she kills you in first-view.”

I realized that my back was wet.

“Jerry, quit this. You hear me?”

“Hey, I've already stepped in this. I've got to know the rest.”

I should have drop everything and come to his place. I should not have thought that it was just too weird to be true. So I was standing in front of my window, looking at the thickening darkness and telling myself that a visit to Jerry would be my first thing to do... on the next day.

I was just too scared of what he could show me, were I to go there.

They said she had a face of death herself... That night was filled with nightmares.


I didn't check out on Jerry next day. Or a day after. And when weekend came, I called only to hear his mother's sobering voice. That was the final point when I realized what I did just to feed my research.

I don't quite remember next several weeks. I've been drinking hard, I deleted all games frompcc, they left so much empty space in my life, I didn't know where to put myself.

And only some time later I realized that maybe I should delete all the topics I created on different forums concerning the “perfect assassin”.

And there it was.


“Hey guys, I don't know what happened just now, but It was kind of curious. Skyrim never seize to wonder me. I opened console to scale my husky (can't stand the idea of my wardog being smaller than a wolf), but couldn't catch his ID. It was blank or something. I came into first-person view and tried again, with same results. I know it sounds funny, but it gave me a strange feeling, not a good one. It definitely was an ID, but not of my dog. We were staying in the shadows, and for a moment I think I saw something there, like a silhouette or something, slightly moving. I dunno what happened to me, I just typed “disable” without second thought. I know one shouldn't run across Skyrim disabling everything on their way, but it felt good. I don't know... Like something heavy just disappeared from game, and I never realized it was there in the first place. Screen became lighter or something. Is it okay that it darkened while the console was open? Nevermind, haven't happened Again.

So I successfully scaled Skeo and was about to leave White run when courier caught me.
And what happened next was weird.

Courier gave me 3000 gold (for my 11 level!) and a letter from jarl. “Please accept my gratitude for clearing the land from that awful atrocity. Let this sum be the token of it. Ismire smile on you, wherever you go in your travels. Balgruuf the Greater, the jarl of White run.”

I am not sure what I did, maybe it was some cut part of the quest, never heard of it. As I said, my Dovahkin is now lever 11, so maybe she'll buy her first house on that reward. It seems kind of strange though, I didn't really do anything special in this play through to earn this...

Whatever. Just have a good day, everyone.”